Star Ocean The Second Story R is a remake released in 2023 by Square Enix. It is a JRPG that spans a large amount of time and a huge map, so players might be wondering just how much there is to do in this mainline Star Ocean title.
Star Ocean Mainline Games Tier List
Now that tri-Ace and Square Enix have released Star Ocean: The Divine Force, it's a good time to reflect on the rest of the Star Ocean franchise.
While the Star Ocean The Second Story R isn't as large as some older JRPGs, it's still a pretty big game, and players can expect to get more than 40 hours out of this title and even more if they plan to try to 100% complete any aspect of it.
The Length of the Original Star Ocean 2
The original version of Star Ocean The Second Story R, called just Star Ocean The Second Story or Star Ocean 2, took players on average about 39.5 hours according to HowLongToBeat. In order to 100% this title, players can expect to spend almost 90 to 100 hours playing.
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The reason the 100% playthrough is so long is because a number of the characters can't be collected on a first playthrough. In order to see all the possible playable NPCs, players will have to play through the whole game twice with the opposite protagonist and make slightly different choices along the way. So there is plenty to do in this massive PS1 RPG, and players won't come up short on playtime.
Unfortunately for players, even a 100% playthrough won't allow them to see everything there is to see; there are as many as 86 possible endings for the 2D pixel art game Star Ocean 2. So how does the remake compare in terms of length?
How Long to Beat Star Ocean The Second Story R
Players can expect to have about the same amount of time for the Star Ocean The Second Story remake by Square Enix; 35 hours to reach the credits and 80 to 100 hours to complete everything the game has to offer. The reason the totals are a little bit lower this time around is that some changes have been made to speed the game up, including:
- The characters now always run instead of having a dedicated run/walk button.
- Cut scenes are now skippable, so most can be skipped on the second playthrough if players prefer.
- Fast travel was added to help modernize Star Ocean 2.
- There is no longer a cool-down timer between spell casts.
- A database of tutorials and information has been added for quick references to finding missing things.
Star Ocean The Second Story R is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Switch.
